Article View: comp.lang.java
Article #267Why C and C++ became widely used
From: David Christie
Date: Mon, 15 Apr 1996 22:18
Date: Mon, 15 Apr 1996 22:18
34 lines
2059 bytes
2059 bytes
Alex Katz wrote: > > I think any advantages of Java over C++, real or imagined, do not necessarily > mean that it will begin to displace C++, unless those advantages address > directly the reasons that C and C++, unlike the vast preponderance of newly > developed languages, became widely used. And I do not see this thread addressing > those reasons. > > Alex In priority order: 1. Portability. (Standard language definition.) 2. Portability. (Wide availability on all platforms, early.) 3. Portability. (Just high level enough that you can write programs that run on different machine architectures without sacrificing performance; as low-level a portable language as possible.) All other reasons pale by comparison. For Java, this is still number 1, 2, and 3, but there may be others: 4. Self-delivering over the web. 5. Anti-virus security. Note that for Java, "portability" means something more than it did for C and C++. In the context of the web, "portability" means running on any web client, not just on any operating system or hardware platform. C and C++ are no longer portable enough, as well as not satisfying (4) and (5). -- David Christie Netscape Communications Corporation dc@netscape.com 501 East Middlefield Road 415-937-4407 Mountain View, CA 94043
Technical Details
Message-ID:
<3172CB1E.2642@netscape.com>Path:
arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!tera.mcom.com!usenetReferences:
<31682FFE.2781E494@bbn.com> <DpJyGG.FKK@hkuxb.hku.hk> <denatale-1004960822260001@grail1506.nando.net> <dbell-1104960125190001@wholder2.cts.com> <316E856F.47DB@viewsoft.com>Show Full Headers
Complete Article Headers
Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!tera.mcom.com!usenet From: David Christie <dc@netscape.com> Newsgroups: comp.lang.java,comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.smalltalk Subject: Why C and C++ became widely used Date: Mon, 15 Apr 1996 15:18:06 -0700 Organization: Netscape Communications, Inc. Message-ID: <3172CB1E.2642@netscape.com> References: <31682FFE.2781E494@bbn.com> <DpJyGG.FKK@hkuxb.hku.hk> <denatale-1004960822260001@grail1506.nando.net> <dbell-1104960125190001@wholder2.cts.com> <316E856F.47DB@viewsoft.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: h198-93-94-207.mcom.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 2.01Gold (Win95; I) To: Alex Katz <alexk@viewsoft.com>